Facebook has
been working to make the tagging process easier when it comes to
sharing photos with family and friends, and now, the social
networking heavyweight will be using facial recognition software to
do just that.

Tagging
photos can be a tedious process on Facebook if a user is sharing
several photos from a large event. For instance, special occasions
like birthday parties and weddings could have you sitting at the
computer tagging the same people over and over, picture by picture,
for long periods of time.

Facebook
has recognized the frustration involved in this process, and began
working on a solution this past October. Now, the company is ready to
present its end result, which is a facial recognition tool that is
sure to make the monotonous task of photo tagging a more pleasant
experience.

The
new facial
recognition software is called "tag suggestions,"
which utilizes facial recognition software to match people in new
photos to other photos they may be tagged in as well.

For
instance, let's say a friend uploads new photos that include you to
their profile. Tag suggestions uses photo recognition software to
distinguish your face from others based on previous tagged photos of
you. Or, if someone in the batch of photos does not have any previous
tags on Facebook, "group tagging," which allows a user to
type one name and apply it to all of the photos that contain that
person, can be used to manually tag individuals. But a user only
has to type the name once, still making this feature much easier than
previous methods of manual tagging.

"Now
if you upload pictures from your cousins wedding, we'll group
together pictures of the bride and suggest her name," said The
Facebook Blog. "Instead of typing her name 64 times, all
you'll need to do is click 'Save' to tag all of your cousin's
pictures at once. By making tagging easier than before, you're more
likely to know right away when friends post photos."

Even
though someone can only tag you if you're friends with one another,
users still have the option to turn off the tag suggestions feature.
A friend would still be able to tag you manually, but switching the
feature off will keep your name from being suggested when new photos
are uploaded. To turn the feature off, simply go to "Privacy
Settings," then "Customize Settings." There will be a
"Suggest photos of me to friends" option that can be
switched off.

Facebook
plans to launch
this new feature over the next couple of weeks in the United
States only. You'll be able to find the feature when uploading new
photos that contain people in previously tagged photos, or when
others upload them of you.

"This week I got an iPhone. This weekend I got four chargers so I can keep it charged everywhere I go and a land line so I can actually make phone calls." -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg